Happiness is handmade

Where did one whole year go? I wanted to update the blog and kept postponing it to the next day almost everyday and without noticing, a whole year went by. My oh my!!!

The past year has been fruitful though...now I sell my soaps under the name 'Amoda Handmades' and Amoda means happiness in Sanskrit. I use the tagline 'happiness is handmade', which I thought of about 2 years ago on a train ride through the Austrian alps. I remember struggling really hard to have something related to happiness as that is what Amoda means and then it sudden struck like lightning and it made perfect sense. Amoda Handmades and the tagline should be registered trademarks in a few months from now and I can't wait.

Some more things I did in the past year:

My website is up and running. It is a very basic one but I wanted to have a place where people who are interested can visit and see the soaps.

Made many lip balms and finally settled on a recipe made with very few ingredients but the balm keeps the lips moist and also lasts decently long on the lips.

Tried my hand at liquid soap making. The result...slightly cloudy soap, but that doesn't bother me that much. I didn't use any alcohol or glycerine or sugar solution. Also didn't start with a lye heavy soap, as I didn't want to add any neutralisers towards the end. I quite like the concept of liquid soap and can't wait to churn out more batches. The only thing that pained me, is the really long cooking time.

Made a sugar scrub...didn't like it that much. The sugar was too coarse. Need to work on that this year.

Got some soap racks made to accommodate more soaps, hope to get some big orders too this year.

Got a soap cutter made. Had to make corrections. Still needs some more corrections.

I kept the best thing for the last...I got me a new little puppy. <3 Soo not related to soap in any way, but he is a real bundle of joy.

Hope everyone has had a good year and wish you all a very happy, peaceful and successful 2014!

Wow, Nitya, I can't beleive your are back! It's nice to see you around here and congratulations on your website! Love the name, I wanted to use it to for my FB page, as it represents so well the positiveness of these little homemade things!

@SoapSudsations: Thank you so much! Setting up the website is a never ending process coz I always feel the need to add a little something here or there all the time. I hope to post more often too. Will surely add soap pics next time. You have a really lovely blog and I love the soaps you make....especially the latest one!! <3

@Natalia: Thank you so much for all the love....I missed blogging sooooo much. And yes, Amoda is a name I really like because making soap gives me so much happiness. If you would like have a look at my FB page...search for Amoda Handmades. :)